The Rural Payments Agency has recently released a statement in relation to the 2016 Basic Payment Scheme. They state that they have paid 91% of eligible 2016 BPS claims to farmers in December and the RPA are continuing to work on those who have not yet had their 2015 queries resolved.

If you have not received your 2016 BPS claim then the RPA will be writing to you over the course of the next few weeks to explain why you haven’t been paid, what will happen next and what to do if you require additional financial support. Vickers and Barrass do not expect the letter to be specific to your claim and we understand from the RPA this will be a generic letter telling you they have not made a payment to you. These letters should be sent directly to the claimant and the RPA will ask you to contact your agent to discuss the contents of the letter.

The RPA continue to say they will pay claims as soon as they can but will not specify and exact date but are working to pay everyone be end of March 2017. However the RPA continue to state that due to the nature of certain claims they know it won’t be possible to make payments by the end of March and if this does happen they will once again write to you.

If you have received your 2016 BPS claim and you disagree with the amount you were expecting you should wait until you receive your Claim Statement. These statements should be sent to you some time in February. If you still don’t agreement with the amount then you should email the RPA and explain why you think the amount is wrong.

The statement bulletin continues to say that Paul Caldwell the Basic Payment Operations Director wants to personally reassure all of you that both he and his team are dedicated to making the remaining BPS 2016 payments as quickly as possible.

However, at the minute our view is the RPA remain in disarray and cannot answer specific questions, answer or reply to letters, or queries’ relating to your claim which is unacceptable.